Thank You Bites
by teddyshoney
Summary: Kurt is in a mood. He doesn't want to clean up his toys, he doesn't want a time out, and he certainly doesn't want the icky food that Daddy made for dinner. WARNING: This story contains age play. Don't like it, don't read. This work is in the same 'verse as The Proposal, Starting Out, and Three.


"Kurt! Dinner!" Noah came into the living room where Kurt was busy building a castle. "It's time to eat, baby. Let's pick up your toys."

"No," Kurt told him, adding another block to the stack. "'m busy."

"Kurt, you don't tell Daddy 'no'," Noah scolded. "You'll have to build again some other time. Right now, it's time to pick up."

"No thank you."

Noah bit back a chuckle at that. "Thank you for using nice manners," he complimented. "But, we still have to put the blocks away."

Kurt crossed his arms over his chest. "Nuh uh. Don't wanna. 'm buildin'."

"I know. But it's time for dinner. Let's go." Noah knelt down, beginning to pick up a few blocks and put them away in the tub, hoping that Kurt would follow suit.

Kurt did not. He continued to sit with his arms crossed, glaring daggers at Daddy.

"Listen," Noah said. "I didn't make this mess. Either you help pick up the blocks, or you can have a time out and then pick up the blocks. Are you going to help?"

Kurt didn't say anything, just shook his head stubbornly, not looking at Daddy.

Noah sighed. This was not the way he wanted their evening to go. Silently, he stood up and grabbed the little boy by the arm, hauling him to his feet. With a powerful swat to his bottom, he marched him over to the corner before he let go.

"Ow!" Kurt cried. Swats were not fair, especially swats that were so hard. He sniffled a little as he stared at the corner.

"I'm starting your time now," Daddy told him. "I expect you to stay in the corner until your time is up. Do you understand."

A nod.

"Words, please."

"Yes, sir," Kurt spit.

Noah came up behind him, planting another firm swat on his behind. "You better lose the attitude while you're over here, too," he whispered, voice stern. "I want to have a nice evening with you, but crabby boys get early bedtime and no bedtime story." With that, his warm breath left Kurt's ear, and he retreated to the kitchen, keeping an eye on his baby as he went. Once he was satisfied that Kurt was going to head his warning, he set about getting their plates ready for dinner.

He was trying out a new recipe. It was his personal opinion that Kurt didn't eat enough healthy food. That mostly consisted of vegetables and fruits, but he also knew that Kurt tended to skip the meat if he could, claiming that the food was too heavy. Most of the time, Noah let this slide with at least a few bites, but he tried to sneak in as much meat as he could, especially on their lazy weekends at home together. So, on this particular Friday night, he'd made Vegetable Beef Casserole. It was very similar to the soup, but it had a slight layer of cheese on the top that he hoped would be inviting. He dished himself a helping and put a smaller helping on a plate for his baby before filling his sippy cup with water and taking their food to the table. Kurt only had a few minutes left on his time out, so Noah was sure the food would be fine on the table.

Kurt stood in the corner, thinking. He didn't like that Daddy was being so bossy tonight. He wanted to build a cool castle for Geoffrey and Thatcher. But he'd only just gotten started when Daddy told him to put the blocks away which was not fair. Then, Daddy had been a meany and smacked his bottom, which was also not fair because he just wanted to build for a few more minutes, but Daddy said no. Kurt sighed. His life was so unfair.

With a glance at his watch, Noah decided to let Kurt out of timeout a few minutes early so they could. He walked over and tapped him on the shoulder. "You can come out now, baby," he said. He waited for Kurt to turn and run into his arms, but instead he was brushed past as Kurt walked deliberately to the blocks and began to put them away wordlessly. "You okay, baby?" Noah asked.

Kurt shrugged.

Not liking that response, Noah grabbed Kurt under his arms and carried him to the couch. He settled the boy on his lap and squeezed him tight before asking, "What's wrong?"

"Nothin's wrong!" Kurt insisted, wiggling to get down. "'m cleanin' up, like you said."

"Well, that can wait a moment. I want to talk to you."

"Daddy, 'm cleanin'."

"You can clean in a moment. I want to talk first. Did you think about anything while you were in timeout?"

Kurt glared at the floor. He had clearly not thought about losing his attitude. "Yes," he grunted.

"Uh huh. And what did you think about?"

"You're mean!"

"I'm sorry that you think that. You know that we can't leave our toys laying around on the floor. That's how they get lost, tripped on, and broken. You don't want any of your toys to get lost or broken, do you?"

"No, but Daddy I w's jus' buildin' castles for Geoffrey and Thatcher. They were going to rule their kingdoms together and be bestest friends."

"Well, you can build your castles after dinner, baby, before bath time."

"But I already started!" Kurt was clearly getting frustrated. He threw himself backward in anger. Daddy didn't get it.

Noah thought quickly. He didn't want this to get any more out of hand. "How about I take a picture of what you've started? That way, after dinner, you can rebuild them exactly how they were."

Kurt glared at the floor again. "I guess," he huffed.

"Alright. Thank you for talking with me, baby," Noah said, planting a kiss on the baby's cheek before letting him slide off of his lap. He snapped a quick picture of the castle base, then told Kurt, "Okay. Let's pick up. Dinner is getting cold."

Kurt begrudgingly began to pick up the blocks, tossing them into the bucket a little bit harder than was strictly necessary.

Noah decided to ignore it. He was sure the baby was just hungry. Once he got some food into his tummy, he would be in a better mood. After all the blocks had been cleaned up, Noah put the tub away on the shelf then guided the baby to the table where their plates were sitting.

Kurt stopped a few steps from the table, staring at the plates distrustfully. "What's that?" he asked, pointing.

"It's a casserole," Noah explained, taking his seat. "It's yummy. Come on. Come eat."

Kurt shook his head. "Nuh uh. Looks yucky."

"You haven't even tried it yet, Kurt," Noah said. He was starting to get very tired of this attitude. Maybe they would need to have early bed anyway. He gestured to the chair next to his. "Come sit down and try a bite."

Kurt came to the table, sliding into his chair, looking at the food on his plate like he was sure it was going to bite him. "What's in it?" he asked.

That was a dangerous game to play. Noah knew from experience that telling him what was in it was a sure way to be sure he didn't eat it. "It's just meat, veggies, and cheese. You'll like it."

"No." Kurt shook his head again. "Don't wanna."

"You have to try it."

"Daddy, can't I just has a sammich instead? I can make it myself. Promise I'll be really, really careful!"

"Nope. This is what I made for dinner. You need to eat it."

"But, Daddy!" Kurt was really frustrated. Nothing was going his way, and he wanted to cuddle with Daddy. But Daddy was a big meanie.

"Just try a bite. Please."

That was clearly the wrong thing to say, because it threw Kurt into a full blown tantrum. He slid out of his chair onto the floor, crying loudly and kicking the floor. "No, no, no, no, no!" he screamed. "I don' wan' it! 's icky!"

"Kurt," Noah tried. "Kurt. Stop screaming and talk to Daddy about it."

But Kurt kept on crying, pounding his fists and heels into the floor as hard as he could.

Noah was a little bit afraid to try to touch him. He'd been punched by Kurt before, and it had not felt nice. He was a strong little boy, and Noah knew he had to be careful. But, throwing a tantrum wasn't acceptable behavior, either. He wasn't sure what to do.

It was just then that Kurt rolled over onto his stomach, kicking with his toes against the floor.

Noah took this opportunity to grab his boy and pull him up onto his lap, Daddy's arms restraining the punching hands, one leg trapping the flailing limbs. "Take a deep breath," Daddy whispered. "When you're calm, we can talk about it. But we can't talk when you yell and scream."

It took a few minutes, but Kurt eventually got control of himself. He sniffled as he sat on Daddy's lap, wiping at his eyes and nose with the back of a newly freed hand.

"Are you feeling better, baby?" Noah asked gently.

Kurt nodded. "'m sorry, Daddy."

"I know. Can you tell me what got you so upset?"

"Don' yike dinner. Veg'bles are icky."

"We've never tried this before, baby. If you try it, you might like it."

Kurt shook his head. "Nuh uh. 's gross."

Noah sighed. He couldn't force the baby to eat, but he had to eat something. He would be hungry in a little while and would want to snack. Noah couldn't allow that, or he'd never get him to eat another meal again. "I have an idea," he finally told Kurt. "Can you sit tight here for just a minute? I'll be right back."

Kurt nodded. "Uh huh."

"Good boy. Drink some water, please," he said as he collected their plates and walked back into the kitchen. He slid his plate into the microwave to reheat it. It was clearly cold by now. He dumped Kurt's plate back into the pan of food. He would just feed him off of his own plate.

Once the microwave beeped, Noah pulled his plate out, returning to the table to find Kurt curled up in the chair where he'd left him, sipping on his water. He set his plate down before picking Kurt up, settling him onto his lap.

"Foo' for me?" Kurt asked around his cup.

"You're going to share mine," Noah told him. He was busy finding each vegetable in the casserole. He pulled one bite of each veggie as well as the meat and the cheese to the side of his plate.

"Daddy!" Kurt whined, putting his hands over his mouth. "Don' wan' it! Icky!"

"You have to take a bite of each part of the casserole. One bite of potato, carrot, celery, green bean, onion, tomato, hamburger, and cheese."

"Ughhh," Kurt said, wiggling to try to get off of Daddy's lap. "Uh uh!"

"Yes. You have to take a Thank You Bite of each thing." 

"Fank you bite?"

"Yep. When someone makes food for you, if you don't try it, it makes them sad. So, you have to have a Thank You Bite of each thing so that they know you at least tried it. And, maybe you'll learn that you do like something you didn't think you would."

Kurt eyed Daddy's plate warily. "Jus' those?" he asked gesturing to the eight bites at the edge of the plate."

"Just those," Daddy reassured, patting his thigh. "If you want more, though, I'll get you some more."

"Then cookies?" Kurt asked.

"Not if you only eat the Thank You Bites. You have to have more than that to get cookies."

Kurt pouted. "Not. Fair," he said, stomping his foot against the floor.

"A spanking is going to be a whole lot less fair," Daddy threatened. "Do you want to try a bite? At Kurt's nod, he asked, "Which one?"

"'tato."

Slowly, the two of them made it through dinner with Daddy giving Kurt each of his thank you bites and eating his own food in-between. When Kurt was finished with his last bite, Daddy asked, "Do you want some more?"

Kurt wasn't sure. It hadn't really been that bad. But he didn't want to tell Daddy that. If he did, Daddy would probably make him eat vegetables all the time, and Kurt did _not_ like veggies! They were okay sometimes, if they were cooked right or with ranch, but most of the time, veggies were gross. "Um...tatoes? And cheese?"

"You just want potatoes and cheese?" Noah chuckled.

"The rest is icky!" Kurt complained.

"How about this? If you eat potatoes, hamburger, and cheese, I'll let you have one cookie." 

"Fine," Kurt agreed sullenly. "But not lots, Daddy! Jus' a yittwe."

"Just a little," Noah agreed, putting Kurt down in the chair again.

True to his word, Kurt did eat most of the potatoes, cheese, and hamburger Daddy brought him, eagerly accepting the cookie he was given and shoving it into his mouth as fast as he could. Then, he and Daddy built castles for Thatcher and Geoffrey until it was time for bed. Kurt was actually feeling pretty tired, so he sat quietly through his bath, refusing bath toys when Daddy offered them.

"You feeling okay, baby?" Daddy asked.

"Uh huh. Jus' tired."

"My poor sleepy boy. It's been a long day, hasn't it?"

Kurt nodded. "Jus' wanna cuddle, Daddy."

"We can do that. Just let me finish washing your hair."

Kurt was compliant, not complaining when Daddy dressed him in footy pajamas and tucked him into bed with a sippy cup of water. "Wiw read me, Daddy?" he asked, looking at him sleepily from behind his cup.

"Sure, baby. Do you want to read more Harry Potter?"

Kurt nodded, eyes already half closed.

Noah opened the book and began to read, smiling as his baby buried his head in his chest. He barely made it through two pages before Kurt was snoring softly. "I guess you did wear yourself out," he whispered, leaning over to place a gentle kiss on the baby's forehead. He took his sippy cup from his hands and placed it on the night stand before getting himself ready for bed. He was tired, too. Kurt had worn him out as well.


End file.
